UMass & ESPN Bowl Agreement

[e_parade]

https://umassathletics.com/news/2022/8/ ... vents.aspx

Some good news there. Official tie ins to some bowls:

The bowl games currently owned and operated by ESPN Events include the Boca Raton Bowl, the Camellia Bowl, the Cure Bowl, the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, the Fenway Bowl, the Frisco Bowl, the Myrtle Beach Bowl, and the New Mexico Bowl

Could be an interesting potential participant in the Fenway Bowl in the future if we get there under Coach Brown.

[Sheck]

Not sure how this will work as those bowl games all have existing agreements with conferences (Fenway Bowl is ACC vs. AAC, Potato Bowl is MAC vs MWC, etc). I'm assuming it's a secondary agreement where we get placed only if there aren't enough bowl eligible teams. Liberty has a similar agreement with ESPN Events. If it comes down to UMass vs. Liberty for 1 bowl game spot, who do they take?

But I know, putting the cart before the horse. Gotta get there first before worrying about the logistics.

[m626t]

I don't think I've heard of any of these...Maybe the Camelia Bowl. Well, you have to crawl before you can walk...

[e_parade]

Not sure how this will work as those bowl games all have existing agreements with conferences (Fenway Bowl is ACC vs. AAC, Potato Bowl is MAC vs MWC, etc). I'm assuming it's a secondary agreement where we get placed only if there aren't enough bowl eligible teams. Liberty has a similar agreement with ESPN Events. If it comes down to UMass vs. Liberty for 1 bowl game spot, who do they take?

But I know, putting the cart before the horse. Gotta get there first before worrying about the logistics.

There's typically a whole bunch of "or" built into who goes, and often more than 2 conferences have affiliations with bowls. This simply means that we're now officially on a list (should we be eligible) for these specific bowls to make their choice for invites. We can fill in if there aren't enough eligible from a specific conference, and maybe other negotiations in there.

[photoman]

Discussing bowl options as we ponder if we can win 3 games this season is pure comedy.

[InnervisionsUMASS]

Discussing bowl options as we ponder if we can win 3 games this season is pure comedy.

More sad than comedy, but this is still a significant step forward and should be praised for that alone.

[UMass'96]

Frank on the UMass Football Blog summarizes this perfectly...

http://umass74.blogspot.com/

UMass enters a Bowl rights agreement with ESPN making UMass eligible for selection to eight bowls owned by the network.

This is big news people. Back in 2019 I looked at the various bowls and exactly one bowl had an "at large" slot. Half of that bowl and all the other bowls were contractually obligated to various leagues. So UMass, if eligible, had to complete for one open slot in the entire FBS universe---a virtual impossibly. Even if the Minutemen went 8-4 in 2019, it is likely they would not have received a bid.

With no league championship and no bowl affiliations, UMass was playing for pride their whole season.

Now, UMass has a goal. Go 6-6 and their is a chance for a bowl bid. Go 7-5 or more and it's certainty.

In addition, if Brown can get us to some bowls, it will help us in seeking a conference affiliation. With several of the Power Five leagues going to 9 conference games, it may be more difficult to get pay games in the future. A league will greatly simplify scheduling and provide a peer group to compete in.

[e_parade]

Yeah that's it exactly. While we still need to get to the point of actually winning games, being able to point to the possibility of a bowl is now there. Before it was all up to chance, even if we somehow pulled together enough wins.

[ZooMass84]

Discussing bowl options as we ponder if we can win 3 games this season is pure comedy.

It's awesome news

[photoman]

By comedy this came to mind...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7fjDS0jKiE

[e_parade]

I think the actual (tragic) comedy would be if this didn't happen, and in 2 years we finally had a 6+ win season but didn't get a bowl because we had no tie-ins.

[LS71]

By comedy this came to mind...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7fjDS0jKiE

Was that his acceptance speech at puke-on?

[stevemaz]

Im on board.. bowling this December!!

[ZooMass84]

Bryant is beating FIU…..st Francis tied with Akron at the end of regulation….FIU beat us last time out. We better get 3 wins this year

[Steve81]

This is very exciting news. It's one less head wind that the football program has as one less negative that competing university can tell open recruits to select them instead of UMass. The ESPN deal also helps to define our Football value to conference that UMass Football would like to join.